I Left Home on a Jet Plane

(09/16/2008)

by Michael DeMarco, St. Joseph’s University/Fairfield University in Florence

After trying to speak a foreign language in a foreign country, I realized how difficult it must be for immigrants trying to adjust and support themselves, and most importantly, their families, when they move from their motherland to a place far far away. It’s a walk in the park for me. My parents pay for everything. I don’t need a job. And even if I did I can only imagine the difficulty trying to articulate that I would need work, had a son, and a wife at home counting on me. I feel like Italians do respect me when and my efforts to try and order a calzone, ask for directions, and order del vino. But some part of them I feel must be thinking that I am just another drunk American student keeping the neighborhood up till four in the morning. So I try to speak the language more, say “per piacere” more than necessary, and always say “ciao.”

My guess is that it might be even worse for someone from the Middle East trying to find work in America in this day and age. But I am lucky; I can get by with my limited knowledge of Italian and dress relatively similar compared to some Europeans. But now I feel that stigma all foreigners feel when traveling, or living abroad. Like most Americans my age, this is my first encounter with that feeling. If you’ve lived abroad you know what I’m talking about. The look when people break eye contact for a split second more, leaving you wondering what they are thinking of you, your clothes, your attempt to talk like them, your shoes, or maybe even a lack of respect that the locals always pay to each other.

But if I smile enough and ask the man working behind the gelato counter how he is or wish him a good night, I made a friend, and friends destroy stigmas for each other. If you don’t use your passport as an excuse to look down on the natives and get away with murder, you’ll make a friend, you’ll speak the same language.

So tonight, I am going to order a glass of Chianti and make a toast to all of us away from home.

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